'Realistic' violence in books

Mirai Gen · 08-14-2006, 02:21 PM

Yet again, I call upon the powers of NPF to help me with a writing dillema!

I've been writing typical fantasy and fanfiction for years. It's no problem for me to slip myself into the world and start tinkering around with characters and conflicts and combat, and midevil violence is a second nature to me. But now I was hoping to do something a little more...unusual.

What I was going to do is make a quasi-post-apocalyptic (I love the dash!) world, set a few thousand years later. Because of a virus that was engineered to attempt to win a war, 80% of the metal in the world that was used for guns and weapons was destroyed, infecting by transmitting through the air. So, with that problem, people have again reverted back to archaic weapons such as martial arts, swords, knives, maces, and the like. I'll spare you the details, because this is only an idea I came up with a few days ago.

Now the problem I have, is that I was hoping to make the violence a little more unrealistic. I'm thinking kind of like Final Fantasy - Advent Children; Peope get knocked around, but its not really a 'big deal' until the hits start accumulating after a long fight. And with that is some of the more insane jumping height, and the like.

My problem is twofold - I'm worried about turning off the reader once they find out my story is Dragon Ball Z without the Kamehameha.

My other problem is a logical explanation behind how they can deliver blows that send the other person crashing into a wall, only to cause the recipient of the punch to continue the fight. I was thinking some sort of evolution of human beings, but it sounds like a deus ex machinae in my head.

Thoughts?

08-14-2006, 02:21 PM	#1
Mirai Gen We are Geth. Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 14,032	'Realistic' violence in books Yet again, I call upon the powers of NPF to help me with a writing dillema! I've been writing typical fantasy and fanfiction for years. It's no problem for me to slip myself into the world and start tinkering around with characters and conflicts and combat, and midevil violence is a second nature to me. But now I was hoping to do something a little more...unusual. What I was going to do is make a quasi-post-apocalyptic (I love the dash!) world, set a few thousand years later. Because of a virus that was engineered to attempt to win a war, 80% of the metal in the world that was used for guns and weapons was destroyed, infecting by transmitting through the air. So, with that problem, people have again reverted back to archaic weapons such as martial arts, swords, knives, maces, and the like. I'll spare you the details, because this is only an idea I came up with a few days ago. Now the problem I have, is that I was hoping to make the violence a little more unrealistic. I'm thinking kind of like Final Fantasy - Advent Children; Peope get knocked around, but its not really a 'big deal' until the hits start accumulating after a long fight. And with that is some of the more insane jumping height, and the like. My problem is twofold - I'm worried about turning off the reader once they find out my story is Dragon Ball Z without the Kamehameha. My other problem is a logical explanation behind how they can deliver blows that send the other person crashing into a wall, only to cause the recipient of the punch to continue the fight. I was thinking some sort of evolution of human beings, but it sounds like a deus ex machinae in my head. Thoughts? __________________